*David Lee Child was born on July 8, 1794. He was a white-American soldier, lawyer, abolitionist, and journalist. David Lee Child was born in West Boylston, Massachusetts, and graduated from Harvard in 1817. Child was the submaster of the Boston Latin School, followed as secretary of the legation in Lisbon about 1820, and enlisted and […]
learn more*Thomas Dalton was born on this date in 1794. He was a free Black abolitionist and education advocate. Thomas Dalton was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts. His father was Thomas Dalton. Thomas Dalton married Patience Young in 1818. She died in 1832. In his second marriage, Dalton married Lucy Lew Francis in 1834. Dalton worked as […]
learn moreOne this date, the Registry remembers the birth of David Walker in 1785. He was a Black abolitionist and publisher.
learn moreOn this date we recall the birth of Sojourner Truth in 1797. She was a Black abolitionist and advocate of women’s rights.
She was born into slavery in Hurley, Ulster County, New York, and was originally named Isabella. She arrived in New York City in 1829, a year after New York state emancipated slaves.
learn moreThis date marks the birth of Levi Coffin in 1798. He was a White American abolitionist and unoffical president of the Underground Railroad.
Levi Coffin, from New Garden, N.C., was the only son among seven children. The young Levi received the bulk of his education at home, which proved to be good enough for Coffin to find work as a teacher for several years. In 1821, with his cousin Vestal, Levi Coffin ran a Sunday school for Blacks. Alarmed slave owners, however, soon forced the school to close.
learn more*Nathaniel Jackson’s birth is celebrated on this date, c. 1798. He was a white-American rancher and abolitionist. He was born in Georgia; his exact birth date is unknown. The date 1798 was used in two censuses, so it is the best guess based on the documentation. He was the son of Joseph Jackson of Alabama […]
learn more*Nancy Prince was born on this date in 1799. She was a Black abolitionist and writer. Nancy Gardner Prince was born free in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Her father, Thomas Gardner, was a wailer. Little is known about Prince’s family life. Her father, a seaman, died when she was an infant, leaving her in the care of […]
learn moreOn this date in 1799, John Russwurm was born. He was an Black abolitionist and Liberian government official.
Born in Jamaica, John Brown Russwurm was the son of an unknown slave mother and a white merchant. At the age of eight, John Brown (as he was known) was sent to Quebec for formal schooling. In 1812, his father married Susan Blanchard who insisted John acknowledge his parentage name.
His father then brought young John to Portland, ME. He attended Hebron Academy and Bowdoin College, where he was one of the first Black university graduates in 1826.
On this date in 1800, Nat Turner, a Black American slave and the leader of a Black slave revolt, was born.
He was born on a plantation in Southampton County, Virginia. Turner was a popular religious leader among his fellow slaves and became convinced that he had been chosen by God to lead his people to freedom. On August 21, 1831, he and five other slaves killed their master and his family and, joined by about 60 blacks from neighboring plantations, started a general revolt.
learn more*The birth of Gullah Jack is celebrated on this date in c 1800. He was an African conjurer and abolitionist. Little was known about his background, except that he was from Angola and was shipped from Zanzibar to America under Zephaniah Kingsley’s direction. He was sent first to Florida, to the Kingsley Plantation. Also known as Counter Jack and […]
learn more*Charles Trowbridge was born on this date in 1835. He was a White American soldier, abolitionist, and politician.
Charles Tyler Trowbridge was from Morristown, New Jersey in an area known as Trowbridge Mountain. He was third of seven children born to Elijah Freeman Trowbridge and Temperance Ludlow Muchmore. His family moved to Brooklyn, New York in 1854. In 1857 he married Emeline Haviland Jackson at Freehold, New Jersey. They had one child, Ida Emeline Trowbridge who died in 1858.
learn more*Lydia Maria Francis Child was born on this date in 1802. She was a White American abolitionist writer.
From Medford, Massachusetts, Child began to write popular historical novels in her twenties. In 1826 she established a periodical for children called Juvenile Miscellany and her book, The Frugal Housewife 1829, was particularly popular. After hearing William Lloyd Garrison speak at a public meeting in 1831, Child began her involvement in the campaign against slavery. This included her book An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans 1833.
learn moreDavid Hunter was born on this date in 1802. He was a White American soldier and abolitionist.
He was born in Washington D.C. He graduated from the Military Academy at West Point in 1822 and saw action in the Seminole War (1838-42) and the Mexican War (1846-48).
A strong opponent of slavery, after the outbreak of the American Civil War, he joined the Union Army. He became a colonel and was severely wounded at Bull Run. In March 1862, Hunter was appointed Commander of the Department of the South.
learn moreElijah Parish Lovejoy was born on this date in 1802. He was a White American abolitionist.
learn more*Mary Minor Blackford was born on this date in 1802. She was a white-American abolitionist. A native of Fredericksburg, VA, Mary Berkeley Minor was the daughter of John Minor and his second wife, Lucy Landon Carter Minor. She was the only daughter of eight children; her father died when she was thirteen. She received education […]
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